Automatic nailing machines



July 3, 1962 E. A. PARR AUTOMATIC NAILING MACHINES 2 Sheets-Sheet lFiled March 8, 1957 INVENToR eowAnu A. ma.

July 3, 1962 E. A. PARR AUTOMATIC NAILING MACHINES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2Filed March 8, 1957 Inn-Ia FIG.

FIG.

\NVENTOR EDWARD A. PARR YW/f 5W,

FIG. I2.

ATTO R N EY.

' 3,041,617 AUTGMATIC NAILING MACS Edward Alden Parr, 419 Leland Ave.,Palo Alto, Calif. Filed Mar. 3, 1957, Ser. No. 644,944 7 Claims. (Cl.1--46) This invention relates to automatic nailing machines and dealsparticularly with a :means for automatically feeding nails into machinesof this type.

Although the invention will be shown and describedin connection withmachines for handling large nails such as spikes and the like, it willbecome obvious that the same machine may be used to drive smaller nailsby merely changing the size of some of the minor parts and it'will alsobe shovm that the same machine will handle .more than one size of nailswithout any change in parts.

Briefly stated, the invention amounts to providing a device adapted tobe used between a driver, preferably power operated and the object beingnailed which has means for automatically feeding nails into a positionto be struck by the driver depending in part on the movement of themachine from one position to another.

More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide Aa meansfor feeding nails into a driving mechanism that is not entirelydependent on the driving mechanism itself to feed the nails but alsoinvolves the movement of the machine from one driving position toanother. In brief, it is contemplated to use gravity as part of theoperating feature of my machine, which means that the machine must beraised with respect to the door before any feeding of nails takes place.This automatically places control of the feeding of nails in the handsof the operator, without regard to the striking Vmechanism and allowsthe operator to optionally feed nails to precise spots, and also to feeda single nail for a single nailing operation.

It is another object of this invention to provide, means of thecharacter described which may be used either with aV power hammer or maybe struck by a hand hammer. In conjunction with an electrically powerdriven hammer, I propose to use an electrical switch for turn- Ving theelectric current olf when the nail is driven home and also to keep thecurrent ot during the loading cycle when the nail is being moved intoposition for striking.

Another object is to provide a reasonably light tool for the purposedescribed that may be handled easily by a single operator.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as the descriptionproceeds in conjunction with the drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of my machine;

FIG. 2 is a view taken of F-IG. 1 in the direction of the arrow 2;

FIG. 3 is a view simil-ar to FIG. 1 taken on the opposite side of themachine; l

FIG. 4 is a view of FIG. 3 taken in the direction of the arrow 4;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the means for feeding thenails one at a time into a hopper;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a side View of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is the same as FIG. 6 showing another position of the samemechanism;

FIG. 9 is a ViewY similar to FIG. l with the driver in the extreme upperposition for selecting a nail from the hopper;

FIG. l() is a fragmentary view, partly in section,`of the driver asshown in FIG. 9 showing its position relative to the shoe;

FIG. 11 shows the same position of the driver but wise thereof.

p annali? Patented July 3, 1962 21 shows how the shoe moves to permitthe selected nail to drop'into 'striking position when the machine israised from the floor;

FIG. 12 is a View of the switch, with the cover removed, showing how theswitch is operated by lthe position of the driver to open or close theelectrical circuitv shoe, generally designated 14. These parts withtheir correlating mechanism will now be described.

The main body or barrel 11 will be seen to consist of a casing 15, bestshown in FIG. 10, closed on its upper end by a cap `16, suitably mountedthereon as by threads 17. Gn the lower end of the barrel 15 I mount asolid member 18, such as by Welding as shown at 19. The member 13 isequipped with holes 20 and 21, the purpose of which will be explainedlater. Below the mem- Vber 18, I mount another solid member 22, which isthe essential part of the shoe 14. This member is pivotally mounted, asshown at 23, in a casing 24 which depends from and is attached to themember 18 'in any suitable manner such'as by welding. The member 22 isequipped with a hole 25 passing lengthwise therethrough. A stirrup 26may be attached to the casing 24 for holding the machine against thefloor by the -foot of the operator if desired.

Taking up the striking member 12, it will be seen that this memberconsists of a shaft 27 adapted to work inside the barrel 11 and has aturned down lower end portion 28 adapted to slidably tit into the hole20, also a stop29'arranged to engage the cap 16 and limit the upwardtravel of the `driver =12. On the outer end of the shaft 27 I mount acollar Sti having arms 31 and 32 ex- -tending outwardly therefrom.Depending from the arm in turn is pivotally mounted on the casing 24 asshown at 39. The operation of the member 37 will be more fully explainedwith reference to FIGS. 5, 6, .7, and 8.

The nail feeding mechanism l13 is essentially a slot arranged to holdnails by their head and feed them to the member 37 which extracts thenails, one at a time from they end of the slot and drops them into achute or hopper from where they are later taken by the shoe and movedinto va positionk where they may be struck by the driver.

The means for mounting the nail feeding mechanism so that Vnails may beextracted in the manner stated consis-ts of a bracket 40 mounted on thecasing 15, said bracket carrying a member 41 having a slot 42 runninglength- (See FIGS. 13 and 14.) The slot 42 is made of proper dimensionsto slidably receive the shank of a nail and hold the head from pullingthru the slot.

In this arrangement, the slot may be filled with nails or spikes, andwhen in a vertical position the row of spikes would tend to slide downthe slot. As a means for guiding the outer ends of the spikes andholding them more fa a) or less in line, I'provide upstanding wings,generally designated 43, on each side of the slot. Normally these wingsshould be spaced only far enough to permit the shank of the nail toslide smoothly between them. Referring .to FIG. 2, it will be seen thatthe upper portion of the wings at 43a are closer than the lower portionat 43b. The reason for this will become clear when the operation of thenail extracting member is explained.

Before going into a description of the nail extracting mechanism, itmight be explained that I do not intend this disclosure -to limit myinvention to any particular way of constructing the parts or elementsentering into my invention. For example, in providing a slot for holdingthe nails in a vertical line, I am aware'there are a great many ways ofdoing this and accordingly intends the disclosure of means for holding arow of nails in a vertical line to cover any equivalent means for thatpurpose. In FIGS. 13 and l4, I have shown a simple way of making asuitable slot for the purpose described.

`Here it will be seen that the member 41 has two other members 44 and 45mountedthereon in a manner to Pmake the slot 42. These members may bewelded to the v44 and 45 in any suitable manner.

The means for extracting the nails one at a time from the slot 42 isbest shown in FIGS. 5, 6, 7, and 8. These views have to do with themovements and the function ofthe member 37 as it extracts nails from theend of the slot 42. As shown in these views, the slot 42 terminates in asubstantially right angle bend and holds the inal nail in an uprightposition. This is best shown in FIG. 7. The bracket member 41 may followthe curvature as far as necessary to hold the nails in the slot. As thenails come to the end of the slot, they are still held by their heads 46in the slot 42 and the shank 47 of theV nail extends substantiallystraight downward. In this position, the shank strikes the edge ofmember 37 and is held against further sliding movement until the member37 is moved. The movement of member 37 is'reciprocal and takes twopositions whichare best shown y in FIGS. 6 and 8. Also in these figures,it will be seen that the member 37 is a short piece of angle iron havinglegs 48 and 49 and that it is held in position by rod 38, rigidlyattached to one end of leg 49 and by lever arm 36 which is pivoted tothe opposite end of the leg 49. The other leg 48 carries a peculiarlyshaped slot. It will be noted that this slot consists of a wide portion50 large enough to pass the head 46 of a nail. One side of this slotruns out into a shoulder 51 and the other side forms a pointed finger52V leaving an opening between the shoulder 51 and the end of the lingerlarge enough to pass the shank of a nail. To get the best results, thenger 52 is offset with respect to the shoul-v the shoulder for thepassage of the shank of a nail such as a spike, but also to provide astop for holding the nails in the slot against further sliding movementwhile the linger 52 with its pointed end enters between the shanks ofthe nails and pulls `the end nail oft the end of the slot. The start ofthis movement is shown in FIG. 6. As the member 37 is returned from theposition in FIG. 6, to the position shown in FIG. 8, the finger 52enters between the shanks of the nails and while itis pulling one nailoff the end of the slot, it is holding the rest against further downwardmovement in the slot. The single nail pulled from the slot is slid intothe openling 50 by further movement of the member 37 from where it dropsinto a chute -or hopper, generally designated 53, see FIGURES lOand 1l.

Referring to FIG. lO which shows the driver in an upraised position, itcan be seen that in this position the lower end of the driver 28 isabove the top of the shoe 22. This would bring the member 37 into theposition shown in FIG. 6 and would allow one nail to drop against theshoulder 51 into position for extraction by the member 37 Vas it swingsback into the position of FIG. 8. 'Ihe movement backward and forward ofthe member 37 is so timed, by spring arrangement, that the return of themember to its position shown in FIG. 8, does not take place until afterthe end of the driver 28 enters the upper part of the hole in the shoe22. This means that the nail can not be dropped 'om the extracting meansuntil after the shoe 22 has returned to the position shown in FIG. l0,and that the nail accordingly is held in the hopper in the hole 2,1 asshown in FIG. l0. To get the nail N from the hole 21 into the hole 25 ofthe shoe 22, it is a matter of raising the shoe olf the door, as shownin PIG. l1. This action may take place along with the raising of thedriver 28 out of the shoe but not necessarily. If it is desired to holda nail in the chute for special nailing, it is only a matter of holdingthe machine against the floor by the stirrup 26 while the driver israised and lowered to drop a nail in the chute. The nail may then heleft in the chute until needed and may then be transferred into the shoefor nailing by lifting the entire device from the hoor Without raisingthe driver and no new nail will be extracted from the slot. In this waya single nail may be driven if desired.

The means for operating the nail extracting in the manner statedconsists of the rod 35 depending from the arm 32 which is raised andlowered with the striking means 12. This rod, as before stated, slidablypasses through a bracket 36a on one end of the arm 36 the other end ofwhich is pivotally connected to the nail extracting member 37 as shownat 366. Above and below the connection of the arm 36 with the rod 35 arecoiled springs S4 and 55. It will be noted that the spring 54 does notextend full length of the space between the said point of connection ofthe arm with the rod, see

FIG. 9, and that -the spring 55 does not extend full length f of thespace below the said point of connection. (See FIG. 2.) This is topermit a limited upward and downward movement of the driver withoutoperating the nail driver and provides a means of operation wherein thenail extracting functions only at or near the end of each movement.

In operation, the slot 42 is filled with nails N which may be done byvspecial mechanism or they may be hand guided into the slot. The nailswill slide down the slot and assume the positions shown in FIG. 7. Theoperator may then use either a power driven hammer, or a hand operatedhammer and the result will amount to the same thing. The upper end ofthe member 12 is shown at 56 as turned down to serve either for use in achuck of a power driven machine or as a point for striking with a handoperated hammer. When a nail is driven home, the driver assumes theposition shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, and in this position a micro switch,generally designated 34 is brought into operation. Referring to FIG. 12,it will be seen that I have shown the unit 34 as comprising a microswitch S8 mounted in a casing 59 and a rod 33 passing through the casingand engaging -a roller 69 which in turn actuates the switch 58. In thisview it can be seen that the rod 33 has a central flatted portion 61terminating in shoulders 62 and 63 and it is the passing of theseshoulders under the roller `y that operates the switch. The shoulder 62Vcorresponds to the position of the driver when the nail in continuousoperation as follows. Assuming, of course, the machine is loaded withnails, the operator would proceed first to raise the driver to thetopmost position shown in FIG. 9. This would place the member 37 in theposition shown in FIG. 6. Continued raising of the machine would resultin raising it from the door, as shown in FIG. 11, and would cause theshoe 22 to rotate on its pivot 23 to the position shown in FIG. 11. Thiswould allow the nail N, previously dropped into the hopper 53 by apreceding operation to drop into the hole 25 in the shoe. The hole inthe shoe may be lined up with the hole 21 in the member 18 by stoppingthe swinging movement of the shoe 22 by a small band or stop 65 placed-across the open side of the depending casing 24. It will be noted inFIGS. l() and l1, that when the driver is raised to its topmost positionthe lower end of the driver 28 is above the top of the shoe 22 but stillwithin the hole 20 in the member 1S. As the end of the driver passes outof the hole 25 in the shoe 22, thus allowing the shoe to swing on itspivot, the shoulder 63 on the rod 33 passes under the roller 60 on themicro switch 58 and causes the switch to shut off the current to a powerdriven hammer (not shown) to prevent any possibility of the hammerstriking the shoe when out of position. As the machine is lowered to theoor, the shoe 22 will first swing back into place andassume its normalposition, shown in FIG. l0. Then as the striking mechanism is lowered,the end of the driver 28 will enter the hole 20 and come to rest on thehead of the nail. Before this point, the shoulder 63 on the shaft 33 haspassed under the roller 60 and turned the switch SS-to an On position.The next stepy in driving the nail is a matter of turning on the currentto the power driver. As the nail is driven home, the shoulder 62 on theshaft 3'3 passes under the roller 60' and shuts off the current. Thepower hammer (not shown) because it is no part of this invention may beof any conventional type, in this case electrically driven, and carriesits own stopping and starting switch on or near the handle for theoperator control. In my invention, the electrical circuit for the hammeris routed through the switch 58 which in turn is controlled by theposition of the driver. The complete cycle of operation is a matter ofraising and lowering the driver and of raising the machine itself fromthe floor, It is to be understood that the operator of the machine mayraise the machine clear of the floor if he desires, in which case anynail or nails in the hole 25 and the hopper 53 would fall to the floor,but that in practice the machine is not raised clear of the oor, butonly enough to allow the shoe 14 to swing over into a nail receivingposition. The amount of lift allowed to the machine is controlled by theoperator through the stirrup 26 which ordinarily is confined to theamount shown in FIG. 11. Under the foregoing arrangement, the operatormay drive nails continuously or he may clear the hopper and the Shoe ofnails if he desires to change the size of nails being handled.

Having shown and described a single embodiment of my invention, I amaware that some of the parts may be modified or refined withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. I therefore intend thisdisclosure to cover all such modiiication and refinements that comewithin `the scope of the disclosure and the purview of the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. In an automatic nailing machine, a striking mechanism having atubular member with a driver longitudinally movable therein, a shoe onthe lower end of said ltubular member, said shoe having a holetherethrough adapted to normally receive the lower end of said driver,said shoe being pivotally mounted on a lower eccentric point thereof toswing on its pivot by gravity when said driver is retracted and saidmachine is raised with respect to the oor and means to position the holein -6 said shoe under a hopper on said tubular member to receive a nailfrom the same and to swing back into normal position when said machineis lowered to the floor.

2. In an automatic nailing machine a tubular member having a driverlongitudinally movable therein and means for feeding nails one at a timeto a hopper mounted on said tubular member upon longitudinal movement ofsaid driver, a shoe mounted on the lower end of said tubular memberhaving a hole therethrough adapted to normal-ly receive the lower end ofsaid driver, said shoe being pivotally mounted on a lower eccentric partthereof to swing by gravity when said driver is retracted and saidmachine is raised with respect to the oor and means to position saidhole under said hopper to receive a nail therefrom, and to swing back tonormal position when said machine is lowered to the floor.

l3. An automatic nailing machine comprising, a main barrel, a driverreciprocably mounted in said barrel, a nail feeding mechanism on saidbarrel,l a shoe pivotally mounted at the lower end of said barrel, saidshoe having a hole therethrough adapted to slidably receive the lowerend of said driver, a hopper mounted on said barrel adapted to receivenails from said feeding mechanism, means operable by the longitudinalmovement of said driver to feed nails one at a time from said nailfeeding mechanism to said hopper, and said shoe being mounted on a pivotat a lower eccentric point thereon to swing by gravity from its normalposition under said striking member to place the hole therethrough undersaid hopper to receive a nail therefrom when said machine is raised withrespect to the oor and to swing back to normal position when saidmachine is `lowered to fthe floor.

4. In an automatic nailing machine the combination of: a longitudinallymovable driver, a nail feeding mechanism adapted to drop nails one at atime into a hopper upon predetermined longitudinal movement of saiddriver anda shoe pivotally mounted at a lower eccentric point :thereonadapted to swing by gravity to transfer nails from said hopper to astriking position under said driver when said machine is raised from andlowered to the iloor.

5. ln a nailing machine, a reciprocating driver, a nail feedingmechanism,v a hopper adapted to hold -a single nail, means operable bythe reciprocation of said driver to extract nails one at a time fromsaid nail feeding mechanism and drop them into said hopper, a shoe belowsaid hopper having a hole therethrough for slidably receiving saiddriver, said shoe being pivotally mounted on said machine ybelow saidhopper on a lower eccentric point on said shoe to cause said shoe toswing by gravity when: said machine is raised with respect to the floorand a stop arranged to bring the hole in said shoe into registration-with said hopper to receive a nail therefrom.

6. An automatic nailing machine comprising, a main barrel, a driverreciprocably mounted in said barrel, a hopper mounted on said barrel, -anail chute adapted to hold nails by their heads in a vertical positionmounted on said barrel, a rod pivotally mounted on said barrel, a nailselecting member fixed to the free end of said rod, a second rodsubstantially parallel to said barrel connected to said driver, meansfor yieldingly connecting said second rod to said first mentioned rod toswing the same on its pivot point to move said nail selecting member toselect a nail `from said chute and drop it into said hopper at apredetermined point of movement of said driver, a shoe eccentricallymounted near its lower end .on said machine near the lower end thereof,said shoe having a vertical hole therethrough adapted to receive the endof said driver when said shoe is in normal position and to swingVoutwardly when said machine is raised with respect to the oor, and astop on said machine arranged to engage said shoe with the holetherethrough under said hopper for receiving a nail therefrom.

7. The elements of'claim 6 wherein the means for `yieldingly connectingsaidseeond rod to said Vfirst mentioned rod includes a lever hailing oneendvpivotally connected to said nail selecting member and the other endslidab'ly connected `to said rst mentioned rod, with yieldable stops onsaid first mentioned rod for engaging said I lever at predeterminedpositions of said driver.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Hansen V Apr. 9, 1918 FOREIGN PATENTS France Nov.24, 1955

